Bronson wants a starring role for the Raiders pack

[greeneyed]

Bronson wants a starring role for the Raiders pack

Bronson Harrison doesn’t hold back when revealing his goals for the 2010 NRL season.

He wants to be a leader in the Canberra Raiders pack and he wants to show how much he can improve.

The New Zealand international isn’t looking to usurp captain Alan Tongue but he does want more responsibility to help turn the Raiders’ potential into success.

But for now the second rower has to bide his time in the gym as he overcomes a frustrating calf injury before launching into the season.

"I want to improve everything in my all round game and become more of a leader in this team" Harrison said.

"I feel a lot more confident than I did this time last year so I should be able to lead both on and off the field, it’s the whole package. I’ve got the extra year under my belt, played the whole season and represented. We’re a young team with a lot of talent and we need our leaders to stand up this year and set the bar."

Harrison played every game in his debut season with the Raiders and was one of the club’s standout players last year.

But after a superb NRL season, Bronson was sidelined with a calf injury while playing with New Zealand in the Four Nations tournament in England in November. The 24 year old has been on limited gym duties since and unable to join his team mates in full field sessions.

While most would enjoy sitting out the exhausting fitness sessions in the Canberra heat, Harrison has been itching to lace up his boots.

In fact, Harrison enjoys training so much Raiders coaching staff ordered the powerful forward to rest over Christmas and not do his extra training sessions.

"I’d like to be a bit further ahead in fitness, but I’ve really got to make sure I don’t get injured so I’ll pull back a little bit now and start ripping in closer to trials" Harrison said.

"I just like doing extras. I just want to be as physically fit as what I was last year but because of the injury I can’t be where I want to be. The big problem with myself is I want to push to be as fit and as good as I can but you just can’t with a calf injury. The club has been very good. They’ve given me a lot of time off and they pretty much told me to go on holiday and stop training over Christmas. I’ve had more than enough rest. It’s just about managing the injury now."

The Raiders ramp up season preparations with three pre season trial matches starting next month.

Four players – Tongue, Joel Monaghan, Terry Campese and David Shillington – are also in the running to play in the NRL All Stars team against an Indigenous All Stars squad also on February 13.

Fans vote on their favourite player and the most popular Canberra player will earn a spot in Wayne Bennett’s squad.

"I’d love to play. I think it’s a great concept" Monaghan said.

"But we all know Tonguey’s the most popular, so there’s a bit of banter between the rest of us."

The Canberra Times

[Nick]

Bronson is quickly rising up my fav players list
i love his attitude, i love his style and i love the production we get out of him.

Best buy this club has made in some time tbh

[pacman]

I want him to have a starring role for the Raiders pack as well.

[always a raider]

Bronson is quickly rising up my fav players list
i love his attitude, i love his style and i love the production we get out of him.

Best buy this club has made in some time tbh

Definately. It's a nice change to hear players talk about how they want to help the team and not their representative chances ala Costigan.

[Rick James]

Thanks for typing that up GE. It would seem he's well on his way to reaching his goal. I <3 our backrow.

[Nick]

Bronson is quickly rising up my fav players list
i love his attitude, i love his style and i love the production we get out of him.

Best buy this club has made in some time tbh

Definately. It's a nice change to hear players talk about how they want to help the team and not their representative chances ala Costigan.

Its a nice change of pace
he didnt even drone on about shoring up his NZ back row spot!

[Seiffert82]

Agreed. Despite the agenda against him I think he has been a quality signing. Hopefully we can get something special out of Galea too, but 2010 should be the year Joel Thompson puts his name in lights with all the off field dramas from last season behind him.

TLL, Thompson, Harrison and Picker are one of the best second row units we've ever seen at the club. Thurling and Galea will really need to step up next year.

[EJ]

He's saying all the right things, isn't he? The difference for me here is, I believe him.

He's exceeded my already quite complimentary expectations, I very much appreciate him being part of our team. A fantastic buy. I would agree the best buy we've made in a long time, perhaps since Schif? We did very well.

EDIT:

Agreed. Despite the agenda against him I think he has been a quality signing.

That agenda was only coming from one source that I saw. I'm sure he realised his mistake long ago, but is just too stubborn to admit it publically. Most others were right behind Bronson after his World Cup performances.

[Seiffert82]

I'm pretty sure there were a couple against his signing, but yeah on the whole I think Harrison had pretty good support. I think he exceeded most peoples expectations though. IMO in the early part of last year he was almost the only one in our forward pack keeping us competitive while TLL, Logan and Tilse were out. Hopefully he can back it up this year.

Thank God Furner learnt his lesson when he asked Harrison to put the offload away. Thankfully that experiment only lasted about two weeks.

[Butters]

I **** love Bronson Harrison. He oozes love for this club and to be honest, I already see him as one of the leaders of our pack. For god's sake, he had to have played the most minutes out of any of our forwards last year anyhow.

Great buy.

[Raidersrawesome]

Im in the I love Bronson group. He adds so much value to our team.
Tigers did not know how to use him effectively , DF seems to know whats best for him.

[94legends]

for a bloke who was playing on the bench for the tigers this bloke shows how much people brought into the club can improve.i dont know what it is but players always play well in canberra,we get a players full potential hope its the same with galea

[thickos]

I **** love Bronson Harrison. He oozes love for this club and to be honest, I already see him as one of the leaders of our pack. For god's sake, he had to have played the most minutes out of any of our forwards last year anyhow.

Great buy.

Very well said. After Tonguey and Josh Miller, Bronson is the man when it comes to the Raiders. I love his passion and his attitude.

[dubby]

The Raiders and Bronson Harrison have been very good to each other.

I cant help but wonder what Dave Furners influence in all this has been. As a former Australian back rower, he must have helped BH in ways Sheens never could

[Manbush]

The Raiders and Bronson Harrison have been very good to each other.

I cant help but wonder what Dave Furners influence in all this has been. As a former Australian back rower, he must have helped BH in ways Sheens never could

In Sheens defence, their front row was decimated so Harrison was used up front where he was needed, not suited though.

[papabear]

The Raiders and Bronson Harrison have been very good to each other.

I cant help but wonder what Dave Furners influence in all this has been. As a former Australian back rower, he must have helped BH in ways Sheens never could

In Sheens defence, their front row was decimated so Harrison was used up front where he was needed, not suited though.

not to mention it was a weak front row when not decimated.

[dubby]

Good point.

But to be fair, Sheens has some strange selections as precedent.

I bet Benji plays prop this year or Lote at hooker

[GreenSoul]

Love the bloke.

My only concern when we signed him was whether a questionable attitude was behind his departure from the Tigers, as it was clear he was very talented. Thankfully he's lived up to his potential at the Raiders and we now have one of the best second rowers in the comp

[dreaming09]

"I feel a lot more confident than I did this time last year so I should be able to lead both on and off the field, it’s the whole package. I’ve got the extra year under my belt, played the whole season and represented. We’re a young team with a lot of talent and we need our leaders to stand up this year and set the bar."

I think BH just raised the bar and fired a shot over the leaders bow step up guys.
I'm feeling the love for BH also,gees he just heaped a massive load of reponsibility on his shoulders.

[dubby]

There's been a few references to the senior players of late. Must make for some interesting training runs.

[Dusty]

How good is our depth in the backrow ????? The hard thing for Furner will be utalising them all. That could be quite hard with Harrison and Tongue being 80 min players.

[frank the tank]

if he wants to lead then let him lead, the man is a 80 min second rower and from start to finish gives his all in 2010 he can only inprove